MISLIŠTE Renata Preglej Garić

Guest Renata Preglej GarićHosted by Sandro KraljevićMay 3, 2026

Renata Preglej Garić

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Eight years into a marketing career, Renata Preglej Garić believed she knew what customers wanted. Then, her employer, a major telecom corporation, moved her to sales — and the team was waiting. They welcomed her with a challenge: "You developed these services; now you sell them." It was a hard lesson in the gap between product development and market reality, a shift that catapulted her from leading eight people to managing five hundred. Preglej Garić, the founder of Soul Studio and the Boardrooms program, shares the stark realities of corporate leadership at scale: the initial fear, the operational lessons learned under pressure, and the critical importance of staying connected to the front lines. Her story is a candid reflection on what it takes to lead large teams and the personal cost of long corporate tenures.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

After eight years developing services in marketing, Renata Preglej Garić found herself in sales, greeted by colleagues who said, "You developed these services; now you sell them." The reality is that marketing often operates in a bubble, believing it knows best for the customer, but the sales floor is where products meet their true test.

The jump from leading eight people in marketing to five hundred in sales was initially terrifying for Preglej Garić, bringing her to tears at home. It took three months to adapt, realizing that leadership at such a scale demands a fundamental shift from micromanagement to strategic oversight.

Receiving five hundred emails a day as a manager of a five-hundred-person team taught Preglej Garić that not all communication is equally important. Engaging with every detail or responding to every email only creates more work, underscoring that effective management at scale means prioritizing and empowering your direct reports.

Preglej Garić insists that a sales director cannot lead effectively from an office, attending only board meetings. Real leadership requires being in the stores or call centers, listening to frontline staff and customers, and actively resolving the small issues that hinder performance.

The "unhappy situation" new managers often face—lacking adequate preparation for specific company cultures and expectations—inspired Preglej Garić to create her Boardrooms program. Generic leadership training falls short; new managers need practical, context-specific guidance to shorten the adaptation period from months to mere weeks.

After sixteen years, Preglej Garić realized she had "lost herself" in the corporation, which had a tendency to shape individuals to suit its needs. The lesson is that while adapting to corporate culture is necessary, it's crucial to recognize when your personal identity is being compromised and to know when it's time to move on.

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